new york, and pat caddell, former pollster for jimmy carter, and doug schoen, a former pollster for bill clinton. gentleman, here is speaker boehner, at the white house, talking to the president today, two days after he said, well, it has been a wasted week. >> it has been a wasted week. the republicans are divided. as the poll numbers suggest very clearly, the republican brand is weak weakening. i believe they are trying to put together something to avoid going over the cliff. speaker boehner has asserted his control over a fractured caucus and bottom line, it remains to be seen whether they can get a deal but i read in the statement, which was identical from the white house and from speaker boehner, they are looking for something big, not small. >>gregg: big would be, the grand bargain that 16 months ago they were on the precipice of and suddenly it didn't happen, so... >> part of the reason it didn't happen speaker boehner was told by the majority leader, cantor, allied with the tea party faction in the house of representatives, you do this deal with obama, you are out as speaker. so,